My favorite hearty beers for the winter months

Light and refreshing beers are great during the summer, but when the nights are cold and snow is in the forecast, I'm looking for the thick, heftier beers.

Norman Miller

Light and refreshing beers are great during the summer, but when the nights are cold and snow is in the forecast, I'm looking for the thick, heftier beers.

I want dark stouts or malty Scottish ales, or maybe something chocolaty. I want something that sticks to your bones.

Here are my choices for a six-pack of New England winter beers, in alphabetical order.

Berkshire Brewing

Company's Holidale

Each year, Berkshire's Holidale Ale, from South Deerfield, Mass., is different. It's always a barleywine, typically higher than 10 percent alcohol by volume (ABV), but almost always worth seeking out.

This year's version will be released this week. It is brewed with both cocoa and malted barley, which, according to the brewery's description, helps "form a silky smooth'' barleywine that smells like coffee and hot chocolate. There are also "hints of cinnamon" in the beer.

I can't wait to pick up a bottle or three of these and enjoy it on a cold night.

Gritty McDuff's Christmas Ale

Gritty McDuff's is one of the oldest breweries in New England, brewing pretty much spot-on English-style ales.

This is a beer for malt lovers. Many Gritty beers have slight flavors of butter in them, but it works well in the Christmas Ale, making it taste like there is butterscotch in the beer.

At 6.2 percent ABV, the beer is sweet, but not too sweet with a bit of spiciness in the finish from the hops to balance it out.

Long Trail Brewing

Company's Hibernator

When it's cold, I find myself drinking more malty beers, and Long Trail's Hibernator fits that bill perfectly.

Brewed in Bridgewater Corner, Vt., the Hibernator is a Scottish Ale, coming in at 6 percent ABV. It has flavors of caramel and butterscotch, with almost no hop flavors.

This beer is lightly carbonated, but extremely smooth. It is sweet, but it is supposed to be on the sweeter side, although there are hints of a doughy, malty flavor, too.

Samuel Adams Cherry Chocolate Bock

If there is one fruit I like in beer more than any other, it's cherry. And, although I'm not a fan of chocolate in solid form, I do love it in liquid form (milk, coffee and beer).

So, this combination, the newest beer in the Samuel Adams winter mixed pack, is a perfect beer for me. Brewed in Boston's Jamaica Plain neighborhood, it is fabulous, almost tasting like chocolate-covered cherries.

The chocolate tastes like a nice milk chocolate, while the cherries taste fresh. It's really more of a dessert beer than anything else, but it's a pleasant beer to taste. At 5.8 percent ABV, it's not too high in alcohol for a winter beer. This would be a perfect beer to put in a 750 ml bottle and to split after dinner with someone.

Smuttynose Brewing Company Winter Ale

Belgian brewers do a fantastic job with winter/Christmas ales. Smuttynose's Winter Ale from Portsmouth, N.H., is an ode to those Belgian beers.

This Belgian dubbel is full-bodied and full of the flavors of plums and a sweet-tasting bread. This beer is only about 5.8 percent ABV, but it has a bigger mouthfeel to it.

And unlike a lot of winter beers, there are no added spices. All of the flavors come from the yeast, malts and hops.

Wormtown Brewery's Sweet Tat's

Sweet Tat's, brewed in Worcester, Mass., is technically not Wormtown's winter seasonal. Rather it's a special release that always seems to hit shelves during the wintertime.

Whatever you want to call it, Sweet Tat's is one of the best, if not the best, stouts brewed in New England. This is a hefty breakfast stout, coming in at 9 percent ABV.

It's an oatmeal stout brewed with coffee, chocolate and vanilla. All three blend together in a wonderful myriad of flavors that work nearly perfectly. I've already had two bottles this season and plan to have more.

These are my selections. Do you have a perfect six-pack? Write and tell me about it.

E-mail Norman Miller at nmiller@wickedlocal.com or call (508) 626-3823. Check out the Beer Nut blog at blogs.wickedlocal.com/beernut. Follow him on Twitterat @realbeernut. Also check out "Norman Miller, The Beer Nut" on Facebook.

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